AUSTEN, Winifred

1876 - 1964

Winifred Marie Louise Austen was born at Ramsgate, Kent on 12 July 1876 and baptised at St George, Ramsgate on 22 August 1876, eldest daughter of Josiah Austen (1830-2 May 1898), a naval staff-surgeon who was born in Plymouth, Devon, and his wife Fanny, nιe Mann (c1837-10 May 1929), who married at Croydon, Surrey in 1867. In 1891, as Austin, Winifred was a 14-year-old, living at Wolseley Road, Hornsey, London with her parents, 60-year-old Josiah and 53-year-old Fanny, with siblings Harold William Colmer 23, Leslie George 20 and Eve J. 19, all born at Ramsgate. Winifred attended the London County Council Central School of Arts and Crafts, studying under Cuthbert Edmund Swan (1870-1931), an animal painter and at Jopling School of Art under Louise Jopling Rowe. In 1899 she first exhibited at the Royal Academy and in all exhibited more than seventy pictures, the last from Wayside, Orford, Suffolk. She worked in both oils and watercolours, but Austen is most highly regarded as an etcher. In all she made some two hundred etched plates, beginning in 1906 with a series entitled 'The White Heron' and had feeling for birds and small mammals, and the naturalist Sir Peter Scott said, "she was certainly the best bird-etcher of this century". In 1902 elected to the Society of Women Artists followed in 1907 to the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers and in 1933 to the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and was also a fellow of the Royal Zoological Society from 1903. She also exhibited at the Abbey Gallery, Alpine Club Gallery, Beaux Arts Gallery, Colnaghi Gallery, Fine Art Society, Grosvenor Gallery, Walker Art Gallery, Leicester Galleries, Manchester City Art Gallery, and the Royal Hibernian Academy (1932-1940), her exhibited works include 'The Pheasant Brood', 'Hares in Young Wheat', 'Blackcap and Ivy Berries' and 'Gathering of Finches' other works were shown at the Greatorex Gallery and Arthur Greatorex acted as her publisher and showed some of her etchings and drawings in July 1926. Her first commissioned work was in 1898, for E. Nesbit's 'Book of Dogs' and such was Austen's success that she required an agent when she employed Oliver O'Donnell Frick (1869–1923), an American from Maryland, and married him on 22 October 1917. After living in Ealing, Austen and her husband lived briefly in both Yeovil, Somerset and Dorking, Surrey, before moving to Suffolk in 1922, where Oliver Frick died from pneumonia the following year. Subsequently Winifred lived at ‘Wayside’, Orford, Suffolk which she shared with her housekeeper, a Mrs Field until the latter's death in 1959. A member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1924-1964 and a regular annual exhibitor including in 1927, two black & white etchings 'The Shelduck Family' and 'The Red Setter' and two watercolours 'Boon Companions' and 'Wild Duck', in 1932 three watercolours 'The Empty Dish' 'Guillemots' and 'Whoopers Taking Alarm', in 1937 watercolours 'Kingfisher', 'Honeymoon (Barn Owl)' and 'Duck Hawk', in 1941 three works 'Cormorants', 'Friends of our Choice' and 'Mary's Bantam's', in 1943 'The White Rabbit', 'Promenade', 'Alert Widgeon' and an etching 'Dormouse' and a dry point 'Goggle of Geese', and in 1944 three works 'Lone Pintail', 'Kingfisher' and 'Long-Tailed Field Mouse'. Innumerable pets became subjects for her work and a printing press was kept in her kitchen. Although reclusive, Austen was involved with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Havergate Island Bird Sanctuary in Suffolk living at Orford, Suffolk. Early in her life she took an interest in psychical research and was also an enthusiastic photographer. Winifred Frick died at 38 Southborough Road, Bickley, Kent, on 1 November 1964, she had no children. A large quantity of her etchings were sold at Bonham’s on 17 September 1992.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 25 Matlock Lane, Ealing, London
1899 292 Brutus: portrait of a Lion
         1544 The Dog and the Shadow
         1545 he Fox and the Stork
         1546 The Wolf and the Lamb
1900 34 Fallen Majesty
         937 In Possession
1901 125 Enforced Abstinence
         711 Flight
         1171 Motherhood
         1470 Drawings of Wild Animals
1902 703 La Louve
from 3 Warwick Road, Maida Hill
1903 433 The Day of Reckoning
         629 'While the wolf in nightly prowl'
1907 339 Camp Followers
         1384 The White Heron - etching
1910 1322 Grizzlies - etching
         1338 A Primeval Chieftain - etching
         1340 The Assassin - etching
1911 1406 White Rats - etching
         1420 The Country Mouse - etching
from 2 Freeland Road, Ealing, West London
1915 239 A Little Jap - etching
1916 255 Snipe - etching
         306 Long Eared Owl - etching
1918 1191 Belgian Hare - etching
from 1 Aldon Terrace, Yeovil, Somerset
1919 1287 Young Swallow - etching
from 51 Rothes Road, Dorking, Surrey
1920 1086 Rabbit - etching
from 20 South Street, Dorking
1921 817 The Grey Gander - etching
         857 A Surrey Fowl - etching
from 7 Victoria Road, Woodbridge, Suffolk
1922 863 The White Gobbler - watercolour
         871 Winter’s Toll - watercolour
from Wayside, Orford, Suffolk
1925 658 Gone to Roost – watercolour
         690 Midday Rest – watercolour
1927 840 Two Rabbits
         846 Hoodie Crows
1930 740 White Feathers
         1265 The Perilous Journey
1932 876 Coats of Many Colours
         1097 The Empty Dish - etching
1933 770 Primary Colours
1934 998 Birds from Abroad – watercolour
         1260 Sudden Alarm - aquatint
1936 820 Specially Selected
1938 825 Family Group
1939 958 Days of Leisure - dry point
1940 811 Tufted Duck - etching
1942 530 Vole - etching
1943 783 Dormouse – etching
1944 1044 Jenny Wren - etching
1945 1186 Field Mouse – etching
1946 1054 March Tit – etching
1947 719 Goldcrest
         1038 Young Missell Thrush – etching
         1044 Bullfinch – etching
1948 738 Dormice
         1140 Whitethroat – etching
         1143 Coal Tit – etching
1950 1158 Young Cuckoo – etching
         1160 Goldcrest - etching
1951 965 Nuthatch – etching
         1006 Tree Sparrows – etching
1952 935 Good-bye Summer: House Martens
         1164 Redwings – etching.
         1243 Flycatchers – etching
1953 1038 Red Squirrel -etching
         1042 Long-tailed Tit -etching
1954 1100 Stoat - etching
1955 764 Resting Awhile, Swallows
         1083 Houseleek and Wagtail – etching
         1092 Tree Creeper – etching
1956 800 A Charm of Goldfinches
         1111 The Fox – etching
         1119 Sedge Warbler – etching
1957 1235 Two for Mirth (Magpies) – etching
         1236 Lesser Spotted Woodpecker – etching
1958 1224 Lesser Whitethroat – etching
         1230 Group of Sparrows – etching
1959 1262 Sedge-warbler – scraper board
         1263 White-throat – scraper board
         1268 House Martins - etching
1960 1297 Blackcap and Ivy Berries – etching
1961 1148 Nightingale – etching

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Works by This Artist